The Guardia Civil have busted a burglar ring that is suspected of carrying out eleven burglaries in cortijos and houses within the municipality of Padul.

Police operation Pictorium netted a total of five suspects aged between 21 and 53, thought to have been behind break-ins between the 10th of January and the 10th of last month causing alarm amongst the townsfolk.

Officers belonging to Robos en el Campo (ROCA) based in Armilla were given the task of investigating this wave of burglaries and started by carrying out inspections of the cortijos and houses where they had taken place. In those that had alarms and security cameras installed, they went through the available images of the thieves and in one piece of footage they saw a suspicious van within the frame, so they looked into who owned it.

They traced it to being a van-hire vehicle and that it had been hired by a resident of Padul with a criminal record. They kept an eye out for the van and when they saw it, pulled it over. Inside were two men and upon searching the vehicle found that it had multiple objects that had been removed from their last break-in; a fridge, a dishwasher, a TV, bicycles, a heater, several tools and even a bathroom cabinet and toilet bowl, as well as a kitchen extractor.

The police suspect that the latest burglary had been for a specific request from a third party as the things taken were not the most expensive in the dwelling but virtually all the furniture.

Following these first two arrests, they next raided a warehouse belonging to the ringleader and found it to be full of stolen items from the previous burglaries with an estimated total value of 25,000 euros.

(News: Padul, Valle de Lecrin, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Break-Ins, Burglaries, Gang, Ringleader, Warehouse, Hire Van, Cortijos, Houses, Criminal Record

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